Hedge Fund Honcho Slams Vance For ‘Left Wing Economics’

Big money managers are taking issue with the veep nominee’s confusing brand of politics.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Vance speaks at Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The co-founder of AQR Capital Management, Clifford Asness, is attacking President Trump’s vice presidential pick for what he alleges are “left wing economics.”

Mr. Asness’s comments came in response to a New York Post opinion piece by columnist Sohrab Ahmari titled “J.D. Vance is Republicans’ best chance to reclaim the political center.”

In the article, Mr. Ahmari praises Mr. Vance for backing “sensible reform bills” including a banking reform bill, a railroad safety bill, and a bill to lower insulin prices, among other things.

To Mr. Asness these policies are “left wing,” though he also criticized him for his “extreme social conservatism.”

“If the “center” is extreme social conservatism coupled with left wing economics then he’s totally right,” Mr. Asness said in a tweet. “He’s also defining himself as the center.”

A former Illinois Republican congressman, Joe Walsh, chimed in to the conversation, saying “This is such an important point by @CliffordAsness.”

“JD Vance represents today’s Trumpy GOP: extreme right wing social conservatism coupled with extreme left wing economics. That’s yuck, and that ain’t the ‘center,’” Mr. Walsh said.

Mr. Walsh had also mocked the last night of the Republican National Convention, asking “do you wanna fix stuff or ya wanna howl at the moon with #HulkHogan for the next 4 years??” in reference to a moment at the convention when wrestler, Hulk Hogan, tore through his T-shirt to show a Trump-Vance campaign shirt underneath.

Like Mr. Vance, Mr. Hogan is also an associate of billionaire Peter Thiel, who has played a significant role in shaping Mr. Vance’s socially conservative views.

Mr. Thiel is even reportedly responsible for Mr. Vance’s conversion to Catholicism, by introducing him to the French conservative René Girard, who himself converted to Catholicism during his life.


The New York Sun

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